Cape wind farm decision faces another setback

With a decision possibly looming in the weeks ahead, the controversial proposal to build the country's first offshore wind farm in Nantucket Sound could face another delay.

JAKE BERRY

With a decision possibly looming in the weeks ahead, the controversial proposal to build the country's first offshore wind farm in Nantucket Sound could face another delay.

Earlier this month, U.S. Sen. Paul Kirk, temporarily filling the seat held by the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, sent a letter to President Obama urging that any decision on the wind farm, proposing to build 130 turbines in Nantucket Sound, be delayed until a national policy on ocean management and planning is in place.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, with whom the decision lies, has said he hopes to decide on the project by the end of the year. But the national policy, which is being crafted by the White House's Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force, could take considerably longer, needlessly delaying the project, Cape Wind planners and supporters said this week.

The White House press office did not return requests for comment.

"This project is at the end of an eight-year review. There has been far too much delay already," Cape Wind spokesman Mark Rodgers said Wednesday. "I really don't think the people that would be getting the jobs to build and operate Cape Wind would agree with Sen. Kirk that we should just wait and not hire them until further into the future."

In the letter, Kirk, who has echoed Kennedy's opposition to the project, writes that Cape Wind should be subject to the same national rules and priorities as all other proposals and that to move ahead without a unified national policy would leave the project at a lower level of consideration.

"I do not believe that it is the administration's intent to have a national policy with respect to all coastal waters except Nantucket Sound, but that could well be the result if the national policy is ignored," Kirk, a Marstons Mills Democrat, wrote in the letter, dated Nov. 12.

Opponents say that if the senator's request is honored, it could prove to be a vital setback for the project, which has encountered numerous challenges since it was proposed. If adopted, the new national ocean policy could prohibit development on Nantucket Sound due to its proud maritime history and heritage, according to Audra Parker, executive director of the anti-Cape Wind group Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound.

"Nantucket Sound should be off-limits to development, and that would be a likely result of any meaningful ocean zoning process," Parker said.

But a delay could also put the Task Force at odds with federal law, supporters say.

Both federal law and emerging national policy dictate that pending energy projects will "not be required to start all over from scratch just because the federal regulatory playing field is changing," Susan Reid, an attorney with the Boston-based Conservation Law Foundation, said yesterday.

"It would be absurd for responsible clean energy projects to be further held up as we develop some of these policies," she said, "Especially in the case of Cape Wind."

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.